http://www.krem.com/video/featured-index.html?nvid=219530&shu=1
Surveillance video from the Air National Guard in Boise.
SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- A meteor flashed across the Northwest sky early Thursday, setting off booms that stunned witnesses.
Witnesses along a 60-mile swath of the Puget Sound region from the Tacoma area to Whidbey Island and as far as 260 miles to the east said the sky lit up brilliantly, and many reported booms as if from one or more explosions.
"It made a pretty big bang," said Petty Officer Andrew Davis at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, 40 miles north of Seattle.
Toby Smith, a University of Washington astronomy lecturer who specializes in meteorites, said the skybursts were reported over a wide area around 2:40 a.m.
Bright flashes and sharp booms were reported in the skies over Western Washington. Viewers from Lakewood to Camano Island called KIRO 7 Eyewitness News, saying they were awakened by light or the booms.
Witnesses along a 60-mile swath of the Puget Sound region from the Tacoma area to Whidbey Island and as far as 260 miles to the east said the sky lit up brilliantly, and many reported booms as if from one or more explosions.
Civilian pilots reported seeing the flash from Ellensburg, east of the Cascade Range, said an FAA duty officer who did not give her name.
At Whidbey Island Naval Air Station about 40 miles north of Seattle, Petty Officer Andrew Davis said he and others saw the skyburst.
"It made a pretty big bang," Davis said. "We thought it could maybe be a meteorite or something."
In Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, about 260 miles to the east, **** Haugen said he was driving to work at KVNI Radio when he saw a flash that he took to be lightning about 2:40 a.m. -- then learned there were no lightning storms anywhere in the region.
Ralph Gaume, head of astronometry at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., said he knew of no likely source from outer space, such as a passing comet or meteor cluster or shower, but added that meteors commonly appear at random.
